* Since daz owns hexagon, bryce and daz studio they have been able to implement a higher degree of interoperability between them all via bi-directional "bridges."*

In response to the above statement:

I already know about the bridges that exist between the different applications fron DAZ 3D. I also know that the Bryce/DAZ Studio bridge work well in just one direction, from DS to Bryce. In using it from Bryce to DS, material and texture files will not move with the object. The DAZ Studio/Hexagon bridge works pretty well both ways. By the way, there is no bridge I have found that works between Bryce and Hexagon, and I have not seen any kind of bridge to or from the other DAZ application, Carrara.

It is not this that I am concerned with, however. I know about the differences in the axis systems of Blender and DAZ Studio; even so, I have been able to work around this problem with some of my unrigged models. As you say, a 90 degree rotation is needed to orient the model correctly in DAZ Studio.

The reason I create models in Blender is because it is a lot easier to use than Hexagon. There are so many extras in Hexagon that it will take a long time to learn enough about it to make model creation worthwhile. All I use the software for at this time is to create mesh changes in existing models found in DAZ Studio. I can export models from DAZ Studio, Bryce, or Hexagon; and then import them into Blender or another program. It is the rigging that I would like to be able to move with the model from Blender to DAZ Studio.

I'm not doing soft body models at this time. That is a ways off for now, So the armature rig does not need weight mapping for the model to work. I would only be exporting the parts of the model with the armature rig and the .mat files. If I can get all of that into DAZ Studio from Blender, I could use tools in DAZ Studio to create a product with articulation, materials, as well as some pose presets the could be uploaded to Renderosity or Share CG so that others could have the opportunity to use them if they wish. Unrigged models have their place, but rigged and posable objects work much better in certain scenes.